Liens

Jul 16, 2012

Marafa, the CPDM, and the rest of us

By Tazoacha Asonganyi

Marafa Hamidou Yaya was
arrested and put on “preventive detention” in April 2012, with Ephraim Inoni, a
former Prime Minister. In the process, we are learning again that it is not
free, independent state institutions that are playing their role of
investigating, arresting, and detaining suspects; it is all at the pleasure of
one all powerful man, Paul Biya, President of the Republic. Reason why motions
of support to Paul Biya are with us again to praise him for the arrest of
Marafa and Inoni - from CPDM MPs, the National Youth Council, Mfoundi CPDM, and
many more probably to follow in the days ahead...

Like for many political
parties, “democracy” is also the pet “slogan” of the CPDM, which they included
it in the name of their party, but their militants seem to have very little
idea of what it means. Party solidarity cannot be allowed to endanger the
rights of the individual member whose free will must remain realised and
promoted by the party. Since Marafa published his letters, the CPDM has
promoted the politics of personal destruction – visceral, mean-spirited
campaigns to destroy him in public opinion – which I find disheartening and bad
for the present and future of the country. I know in the jungle of the politics
the Cameroonians play, the importance of putting one’s self in the place of
another – empathy - to experience what they were feeling, and to understand
their motives and desires is never as strong in us as in other societies we
look up to.

In Africa, the
individual is not yet liberated from the traditional bonds of community, and
from the representation of the world as an organic hierarchical totality. This
is why we usually hear appeals, like we are hearing from the CPDM to ethnic,
religious, traditional or party bonds of solidarity to dampen society’s
self-interrogation and self-critique, as characterised by the Marafa letters.
To those who spend their time asking why Marafa is only making his revelations
today, there is no privileged standpoint from which such revelations can be
made; and there is no appropriate moment.

Marafa’s letters
indicate that the official political expression we discern in public – motions
of support and all - does not necessarily represent popular sentiments. It is
those who lost sight of this that were surprised at the speed at which the
Marafa letters emerged in the wake of his arrest. Without focus on the
underlying meaning of the behaviour of individuals, it will always be difficult
to predict the evolution of a political system like Cameroon’s. I have always
known that individuals might find it advantageous to hide their true political
sentiments from officialdom, so political values should never be judged on the
basis of publicly observable and quantifiable measures of support, since the
mere existence of motions and rallies of support does not infer popular
support, especially for aging leaders that have spent too much time in power!
Indeed, in a regime like ours, true political values are hardly ever expressed
in public; the landscape usually looks calm and tranquil when it is rife with
subterranean discord.

Newspapers are reporting
that following Marafa’s letters, Paul Biya instructed the SG at the Presidency
to open investigations into the bribery allegations linked to the CAMAIR
maintenance contract. But the documents on which these instructions are based
were available to him since 2001 because they were provided to Cameroon by
Advanced Technics Trust Ltd to enable Cameroon to win its case against South
Africa Airways, as per the agreement signed between the two parties on
26/06/2001. This is why another contribution of Marafa’s revelations is the
further exposure to the rest of us of the manner the country has been run since
Paul Biya took over from Ahidjo in November 1982; he has kept recycling corrupt
people in his governments, in spite of his knowledge of their dirty files, and
so emboldened them to turn Cameroon into a corruption fraternity in 30 years of
his reign. In doing this, he turned government from an expression of
leadership, to the service of slaves to a master, as so aptly put by one of his
sycophantic university don! He failed to follow the advice that a party leader,
like an army officer cannot expect to impose discipline on his subordinates
unless he is capable of accepting and working to the same discipline himself;
he cannot successfully fight corruption within the ranks of his party and
regime, unless he is an example of the incorruptible. This is why we witness
daily a curious discrepancy in the behaviour of the CPDM: what they say and
what they do seem to always exist in separate compartments!

The CPDM Newspaper
l’Action No. 254 of 11 July 2012 waded into the 32.5 billion case against the
government, “after several weeks’ investigation on the whereabouts of the
money.” Their conclusions reveal the blurred mindset of the CPDM related to
corruption. The paper writes: “Following negotiations, Transnet SAA accepted to
pay the sum of 26 million US$ (14 billion FCFA), which Cameroon accepted. The
14 billion were naturally deposited in the account of Cameroon in SGBC central
branch in Paris. Part of the money served in the payment of the results
allowance, part served to pay bailiffs and other witnesses that helped the
commission to assemble its evidence, the rest was transferred to government
coffers...”

L’Action further informs
the rest of us that account no 00078013914 was opened in SGBC central branch in
Paris in the name of the Republic of Cameroon to take care of legal fees. The
Cameroon government obviously put money (how much?) into the account even
before the money from SAA was deposited into it. What was the total sum in the
account following the deposition of the money from SAA? We need these details
of how taxpayer’s money was spent, but l’Action newspaper that carried out
investigations “for several weeks,” failed to give us, hoping to clean the
image of the CPDM government and regime without much effort!

The crash of Cameroon
Airlines Boeing 737-200 (Nyong) is related to the commissions (bribes!) given
to Cameroon government officials to derail the purpose of the contract of
maintenance of Boeing 737 and 747 of Cameroon between CAMAIR and Transnet South
African Airways because it was effectively the non-maintenance of the planes
that led to the crash, and the loss of lives. Indeed, it is the crash and loss
of lives that brought the bribery crimes to the fore and caused Cameroon to
pursue South Africa Airways for non-execution of contract!

L’Action newspaper does
not seem to know that the 32.5 billion have become the microcosm of the budget
of Cameroon, and Cameroonians are interested in knowing how each franc of the
money was spent. If l’Action newspaper is interested in answering the question
“What happened to the 32.5 billion” which constituted the purpose of the
“several weeks” investigation, they should know that by now, the rest of us
want to know the exact amounts that served each purpose...

Mental health is the
ability to adapt to the stresses and misfortunes of life; the ability to cope
with anxiety and depression in a healthy way. An outstanding feature of
successful adaptation is that it leaves the way open for future growth. Marafa
has shown himself to be totally on top of such afflictions; his response
through his letters is virtually an exhortation to some of his colleagues who
are suffering the same fate as himself to stand up and play the man. He has
shown that just as it is usually necessary to sacrifice peace if freedom and justice
are to prevail, it may usually be necessary to sacrifice loyalty for freedom
and justice to prevail. He has shown us all that in the arduous task of
building a new Cameroon, there are many who should not be pigeon-holed; and he
has shown that he is a man for all seasons and all reasons...